Goody O'Grumpity

Goody O'Grumpity

From School Library JournalPreSchool-Grade 2-Wolff takes this 1937 poem by a Newbery medalist and brings it to life with her bold, detailed, hand-colored linoleum prints. The action is simple. Goody, a Pilgrim, bakes a spice cake and the children come running, first to lick the bowl and then, best of all, to sample the cake itself. The illustrations provide a strong sense of time and place. Details pertaining to the dwellings, dress, and occupations of the townsfolk are all consistent with the colonial setting. Goody collects her ingredients from the nearby cows and hens, churns her own butter, and places the cakes in a community stone oven. As the aroma wafts over the land, readers' vision of this past life is expanded as they follow the smoky trail through the woods to the neighboring Indian settlement. The book ends with Goody's recipe. A rich vision of the past, especially for Thanksgiving.Martha Topol, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MICopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.Goody O'Grumpity's spice cake is so chocked full of wonderful things that ""the children flocked by the dozens and tens"" just to lick the bowl. Ashley Wolff's charming, hand-colored linoleum prints set Brink's classic poem in colonial times. Includes an easy-to-follow recipe for spice cake. Full color.From Publishers WeeklyWolff's (Come With Me; A Year of Beasts) stunning linoleum-block prints, painted with predominantly earth-toned watercolors, illustrate this timeless, lilting poem by the late Brink, who won the 1936 Newbery Medal for Caddie Woodlawn. The art and handsome typography, set on simulated parchment pages, evoke a colonial past, when the children of a village rally at the news that a kindly woman is baking a cake. "With wishful eyes and watering mouth," the youngsters appear at Goody's door to lick the bowl after she has prepared her treat for baking. And they are at her side when Goody removes the cake from an outdoor oven: "They said not a word, just breathed in the spice,/ And at last when the cake was all golden and nice,/ Goody took a great knife and cut each a slice." According to an illustrator's note, Wolff's research brought her to Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, where she found the 17th-century recipe for spice cake (containing the ingredients mentioned in the poem) that is reprinted at the close of this engaging book. Ages 3-5.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.From BooklistAges 5-8. In an illustrator's note, Wolff explains how she used clues in Brink's delightful 1937 poem about Goody O'Grumpity's baking a cake for hungry children in order to determine when Goody lived and how to portray her. The research led Wolff to the Plimoth Plantation, where she not only confirmed her hunches, but also found a seventeenth-century recipe for the spice cake (actually a yeast bread) that she includes at the end of the book. Brink's narrative invites children to follow Goody through the cooking process--from churning the milk to slicing the cake. Tinted with warm, golden colors, Wolff's linoleum block prints seem filled with light, and thanks to the homework Wolff did, they convey an accurate and vivid view of daily life in a colonial community. Chris ShermanAbout the AuthorCarol Ryrie Brink was the author of many books for young readers, including ""Caddie Woodlawn's Family, "" the companion volume to ""Caddie Woodlawn"", and ""Baby Island"".Ashley Wolff is the author of the bestselling Miss Bindergarten series.